Response To Monastic Micky’s Teaching Report

#1 – In a discussion type study how much time do you give people to think thoroughly enough not to give petty answers, but still not stretch out the thinking time? - I think with discussion type study groups, time is a really hard thing to measure. I think regardless of the "time limit" that you set; you are going to get petty answers. But the wonderful thing about that is the fact that people may be annoyed by the fact that people are giving petty answers. Some of the situations like this, I have seen turn to good discussions. People start to get annoyed with the stupid answers and they end up giving good ones in replace of the bad ones. Now, this hasn't happened every time. But I think it is important just to "wait it out". If you wait long enough, someone is going to at least attempt an intelligent response. If they don't, then you need to start prodding for answers by asking stimulating questions. Questions like, "what does this mean to you?" or "When I asked this question, what was the first thing that came into mind?" I guess you could also just flat out say, "these answers are petty and not meaningful, why not try to give me some better ones?"

#2 – What do you say to someone answering a question, or describing something, when you know they are blatantly wrong? - That is a tough one. You are kind of faced with two options: you can approach them in private after the gathering or in public so that everyone can know that what the person was saying is wrong. I would prefer to do a combination of the two: After the person has said something blatenty wrong, I would say something like, "Well that's an interesting perspective, why do you think that?" Then we can discuss it briefly and then move on. Afterwords I would go up and approach them and discuss it more so to make sure that what they said was not quite right. It is important for you and the person that you do that. You are doing each other a favor. You aren't making yourself look like a pompous jerk who knows everything, and at the same time, you are letting him know he is wrong. It's really win/win.